April 28, 2003 Contact: Li-Ling Wang

Featuring ensembles include the Bellezza, Biava, Calder,
Chiara, Fry Street, Parkers, Satori, and Vega string quartets

The 2003 Juilliard String Quartet Seminar culminates in two performances by participating ensembles on Friday, May 23 at 4 PM and 8 PM in Paul Hall. Each year, a number of student string quartets are chosen by the Juilliard String Quartet from an array of international ensembles to participate in an intensive week of coaching and performance with the Juilliard String Quartet. The seminar concludes in concerts featuring each ensemble performing a full-length work; programming to be determined during the seminar week. This year’s participating ensembles are the Bellezza, Biava, Calder, Chiara, Fry Street, Parkers, Satori, and Vega string quartets. The Juilliard String Quartet Seminar Concerts are free and no tickets are required. The Paul Hall is located on the plaza level of The Juilliard School, 60 Lincoln Center Plaza. For more information please visit www.juilliard.edu, or call the Juilliard Box Office at 212-769-7406.

The Quartet Bellezza was formed at The Juilliard School in September 2002, under the guidance of Joel Smirnoff. Comprised of violinists Arnaud Sussmann and Joanna Frankel, violist Caroline Johnston, and cellist Lin Zhu, the Quartet plans to continue its studies with the members of the Juilliard String Quartet. The Quartet Bellezza recently premiered Avner Dorman’s and Norbert Palej’s string quartets in Juilliard’s Paul Hall, as well as in a special concert at the American Friends of the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra. All four members of the Quartet Bellezza currently are pursuing their bachelor of music degrees at The Juilliard School.

Winner of the 2003 Naumburg Chamber Music Award, the Biava Quartet, whose member are violinists Austin Hartman and Hyunsu Ko, violist Mary Persin, and cellist Jacob Braun, is named for the respected conductor and mentor, Maestro Luis Biava of The Philadelphia Orchestra. Formed in the fall of 1998, the Biava Quartet has received numerous prizes and awards, including third prize at The 9^th London International String Quartet Competition, and top prizes at the 2002 and the 2003 Young Concert Auditions in New York, as well as the 55th annual Coleman and the 2001 Fischoff national chamber music competitions. Highlights from its 2002-03 season included a debut recital at Jordan Hall in Boston, a concert tour of Italy, two performances at London’s Wigmore Hall, and debut performances throughout the United States. The Biava Quartet has studied with members of the Emerson, Guarneri, Juilliard, Takacs, Amadeus, American, Cavani, Mendelssohn, Orion, St. Lawrence, Tokyo, and Vermeer string quartets, as well as Raphael Hillyer, Paul and Martha Katz, Robert Mann, Peter Salaff, and Donald Weilerstein. Recent graduates of the Cleveland Institute of Music, the Quartet currently is studying at the New England Conservatory of Music in Boston in the Professional String Quartet Training Program under the direction of Paul Katz.

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The Calder Quartet, winner of the 2002 Coleman Competition, was formed at the University of Southern California Thornton School of Music in 1998. The ensemble, whose members are violinists Benjamin Jacobson and Andrew Bulbrook, violist Jonathan Moerschel, and cellist Eric Byers, has performed throughout Southern California both in recitals and on radio broadcasts. Highlights of this season include performances with guest artists as Claude Frank, Sharon Isbin, Danny Anger, Mike Marshall, and principal players from the New York and Los Angeles philharmonic orchestras, a series of concerts in France marking the ensemble’s European debut, the Quartet’s debut as soloist with orchestra in the Spohr Concerto for Quartet and Orchestra, and a return to the Aspen Festival for their second season in the Advanced Quartet Studies Program. The Calder Quartet will take up the position of Associate Artists in Residence at the Colburn School for the Performing Arts in the 2003-04 season.

First-prize winner of the 2002 Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition, the Chiara String Quartet, whose members are violinists Rebecca Fischer and Julie Yoon, violist Jonah Sirota, and cellist Greg Beaver, began its professional life in September of 2000 as the recipient of a Chamber Music America Rural Residency in Grand Forks, North Dakota. Since then, it has won the Astral Artistic Services Auditions and joined the Astral roster of outstanding young artists on the brink of launching major professional careers. The ensemble has performed live on NPR’s Performance Today, commissioned and premiered several new works, and collaborated with such notable artists as Daniel Phillips, Paul Katz, and the Cavani String Quartet. The Quartet studied at The Juilliard School, where they worked with members of the Juilliard String Quartet, and began to plan a career in quartet playing. The Chiara String Quartet has been selected as the 2003-04 recipient of Juilliard’s Lisa Arnhold Fellowship and will begin its residency at Juilliard in September 2003.

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Founded in 1997, the Fry Street Quartet, whose members are violinists Jessica Guideri and Rebecca McFaul, violist Russell Fallstad, and cellist Anne Francis, took their name from the little street in Chicago where they were in residence at the time. They were mentored early on by the late Isaac Stern, who invited them to chamber music workshops at the Jerusalem Music Center and Carnegie Hall, and chose them to perform their Carnegie Hall debut in his series at Weill Recital Hall in November 2001. In July 2002 the ensemble was sponsored by Carnegie Hall and the U.S. Department of State on a concert tour of the Balkan States, as ambassadors of the Carnegie Fellows Program. They toured with J. Mark Scearce’s first quartet Y2K, which was written for them with a grant from Meet the Composer. The Fry Street Quartet has won the first prize at the 2000 Chamber Music Yellow Springs Competition and the 2000 Millennium Grand Prize at the Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition. In addition, the Quartet was twice the recipient of a fellowship to the Aspen Music Festival’s Center for Advanced Quartet Studies. In May of 2002, the Fry Street Quartet completed their three-year tenure in Chamber Music America’s "Rural Residencies" program at Hickory, North Carolina, where they offered a sold-out chamber music series and played over 100 outreach concerts per year. The ensemble has been the Faculty String Quartet in Residence at Utah State University since September 2002.

Founded in May 2001, the Parker String Quartet’s members are violinists Daniel Chong and Karen Kim, violist Jessica Bodner, and cellist Kee-hyun Kim. Named the 2002-03 Honors Ensemble at New England Conservatory, the Quartet has performed throughout the Boston area, including the Jordan Hall, John Joseph Moakley Courthouse, and St. Cecilia’s Church, among other venues. In addition to the 2003 Juilliard String Quartet Seminar, the ensemble also will participate in the Emerson String Quartet Workshop and the Takacs String Quartet Seminar, followed by attendance at the Norfolk Chamber Music Festival under the guidance of the Tokyo String Quartet. Currently, the Quartet is studying with Lucy Stoltzman at the New England Conservatory of Music, where all of the members are pursuing bachelor of music degrees. The ensemble also has studied with Donald Weilerstein and Kim Kashkashian.

Founded in the winter of 2001, the Satori Quartet, whose members are violinists Jae Young Cosmos Lee and MinTze Wu, violist Yoko Okayasu, and cellist Nicholas Hardie, currently is the Graduate String Quartet-in-Residence at the University of Colorado, Boulder, under the tutelage of the Takacs String Quartet. Alumni of the Kneisel Hall Chamber Music Festival, the ensemble returned there as the first Young Artist Quartet-in-Residence in the summer of 2002. This summer, in addition to the Juilliard String Quartet Seminar, the Satori Quartet also will attend the Takacs String Quartet Seminar, as well as the Norfolk Chamber Music Festival as the young artist quartet-in-residence under the Tokyo String Quartet. In 2003-04, the Quartet is scheduled to perform Mendelssohn’s Octet on the Takacs Quartet Series in conjunction with the Takacs String Quartet. The Quartet also will be featured on the Boulder Public Library Concert Series. The Satori Quartet has been active in outreach programs throughout Colorado.

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Vega String Quartet, whose members are violinists Wendy Yun Chen and Jessica Shuang Wu, violist Yinzi Kong, and cellist Guang Wang, has won numerous prizes and awards, including the Young Artists Prize at the 40th International Munich Competition in 1991, first prizes in the Coleman and Carmel chamber music competitions, and four top prizes at the 1999 Bordeaux International String Quartet Competition (one of them to be the international music critics’ prize). In 2002, they joined the artist roster of Carnegie Hall’s New York City Neighborhood Concert series. In the 2003-04 season, the ensemble will serve as visiting artists-in-residence at Emory University in Atlanta performing the complete Beethoven Quartet cycle. The ensemble has given performances throughout the United States, Asia, and Europe. Festival appearances have included the Mostly Mozart, Aspen, La Jolla, Highlands-Cashiers, Rockport, Kingston, and Musicorda festivals. The Quartet’s live broadcast credits include NPR’s Performance Today (USA), the National Radio of China, Radio France, France Musiques, and the National Radio of the Czech Republic. The Vega String Quartet studied with the members of the Amadeus, American, Cleveland, Emerson, Guarneri, Juilliard, Orion, and Tokyo string quartets.